it's been so low, come home to me
by of ocean-blue storms
Summary: Because damn it, they're family. Only, Elijah's not sure what family means anymore.


**A/N:** Okay, so I was listening to Walkabout by Augustines - yup, _that_ one from The Originals - and I'mgonnastartcryingnopenoI'mnotbutohmygod. Sorry. Ahem. I would really advise you to pull up the song and listen to it, while you read this crappy piece of writing pushed out by the tears induced by too-many-Mikaelson-deaths. JULIE PLEC, WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME.

.

**it's been so low, come home to me**

.

Because damn it, they're _family_. Only, Elijah's not sure what family means anymore.

.

.

_Into the arms of the sea,_

_What my tide had carried free,_

_I walked down to the priest,_

_To be kind with the storms inside._

.

Henrik is first.

He leaves, disappearing in a mess of crimson blood and swathed in Klaus's trembling arms.

The aching smiles and exhausting laughter of a once-beautifully shiny childhood tangles in along with Henrik's dead body and there is now no room for mirth nor any moment of happiness in their lives. Esther breathes forbidden tears while Elijah does nothing but hunt with his father and offer brief comfort to his mother.

It is the job of being the eldest, he supposes.

His siblings grieve together, hiding away with Niklaus, the bastard brother, in the small alcove in the woods where Henrik is buried. Elijah deflects his father's anger by distracting him and keeping Niklaus hidden away.

_'It's his fault!'_ Mikael rages, as he paces up and down their home relentlessly.

Elijah breathes a silent prayer of relief: Finn and Kol are out with Niklaus, hunting in the woods for supper and Mikael is left with nobody to vent at but himself.

_'My youngest son is dead, Elijah! And it is all that _boy's_ fault!'_

Mikael spits vehement abuse but Elijah stands quietly and sees the torment, the anguish flickering in his father's tearful eyes.

_One down, five to go._

.

.

Finn is next.

The fires of death consume him entirely, swallowing his brother as the last few breaths of life disappear from the man who lived too little. Cries of pain and agony shatter the walls of Elijah's soul, pressing further cracks in.

Guilt tears at Elijah, yanking at him to see reason, ripping away at his already-battered soul and he pleads with Niklaus, to grieve, to _feel_.

His brother swallows down the grief and shuts off his emotions. _'Elijah, don't fool yourself,'_ he spits._ 'Finn was going to kill us.'_

The scars buried deep within Elijah protrude further, tearing themselves open with a ferocity and Elijah buries his brother in the dead of night, next to his other dead brother. The moon watches carefully, keeping the secret, as a single tear falls on Finn's coffin.

_Two down, four to go._

.

.

Kol is dead.

Elijah is not even in town when Niklaus manages to send him the message but the words slash into him deep enough, ripping open the wounds he's sure had healed.

They tear into him mercilessly as Elijah rushes back to town with strength and speed that surpasses even the fastest of them all. Infectious laughter and teasing wit of a brother once alive echoes in his ears while released tears mingle with the snapping fractures in his heart.

_'They killed him, brother,'_ Rebekah sobs into his chest. _'They killed him!'_

His siblings, so familiar with the echoing taunts of death, grieve quickly but Elijah has not healed so fast. Dead slashes cut into him with a mocking derision because this is another one gone and Elijah wonders how he can stand it.

He buries his brother with his other brothers, and the moon looks on, with a heavy heart.

_Three down, three to go._

.

.

Rebekah leaves.

Elijah cannot breathe because his sister is dead and Niklaus is livid. The anger surges through Niklaus' veins freely enough as he slaughters those who killed her with a merciless passion but Elijah cannot speak through his grief so generously.

_'You will all suffer,'_ Niklaus vows heavily,_ 'and I will wait until you beg and plead for me to end your pain and only then, only then will I heal you and torture you once more.'_

She is gone, his beloved sister; he will never be able to watch as she falls helplessly in love, cries into his shoulder, fights and argues with his brothers – brother. Elijah will never see her again.

Niklaus joins him as they bury her between Kol and Finn, pressing forgotten hopes and lost dreams into the soils as it sprinkles on their sister helplessly. Her cherished desires and optimistic visions float away with the whispering breeze, tangling with the soft, salty tears dropping on the graves.

The moon's tearful gaze shines down on the brothers as they mourn.

_Four down, two to go._

.

.

Niklaus is hollow.

They have been through so much, lost far too much, and the drums of loneliness beat into the bastard brother, pressing into his black, abandoned soul. His heart disappears amidst the loneliness, protected by bitter vines and prickly thorns, and his eyes, once alight with fresh love and sparks, deaden with solitude.

He is a dead man still breathing.

The walls of the world change swiftly, green summer leaves brightening to soft autumn breezes, but he does not notice. Specks of white winter snow disappear under vivid summer sunshine but he still does not notice. Time takes wing, soaring under the beating wings of years, and the only thing to change is the canvas.

The canvas hangs heavily in their home. Under the canvas lies the word _Family_.

The canvas is blank.

Niklaus is king but all he has is the world, its pleasures and nobody to share it with.

.

.

They were supposed to be family.

Henrik and Finn and Kol and Rebekah and Niklaus and Elijah.

_Sticking together, always and forever._

The words echo in Elijah's shattered heart and the cracks are too large to piece back together anymore. The broken, shattered Mikaelson family of two breathe but do not live, they drink but do not enjoy and they survive but do not smile.

Elijah sits in front of the graves and all the money, all the people, all the dangers of the world could not persuade him to leave as he stares into the fresh soils containing the people he truly loves.

_'We stick together,'_ he murmurs and takes in a shaky breath, the tears finally seeping through the rips of his soul. _'Always and forever.'_

They were supposed to be a family.

Only, Elijah's not sure what that means anymore.

_And the moon watches as they all go down._

.

.

**fin**

**A/N CONTINUED:** I really hope you guys enjoyed that as much I did writing it. Well, technically I didn't really have that much fun, seeing as the tears were coming, they were coming, people. They were flowing, thick and fast, and you know that lump you get in your throat, the ones that people talk about, but you never really experience, yup, I totally got that lump - and I should shut up and beg you to review. Ahem. Review? Pretty please? With an imaginary cherry on top?


End file.
